Hispanics in Buffalo - An OverviewExcerpts from"Ethnic Heritage Enriches Buffalo,"
by Anthony Cardinale, pub. in the October 12, 1980 edition of The Buffalo News

The most recent newcomers to the Buffalo area are
the Hispanics, mostly from Puerto Rico but also from Cuba, Mexico and elsewhere in
Latin America. Many of the Puerto Ricans had been migrant workers coming to the farms
and orchards during the growing season and returning home for the winter.

Holy Cross RC Church.
Maryland and Seventh Sts.

Little by little, the farm workers and cannery laborers began finding more permanent
year-round jobs in the area. By 1960 there were 1,386 Puerto Ricans in Buffalo.

Augustine "Pucho" Olivencia arrived in North Collins with 20 other men
in 1952. He founded the Puerto Rican-Amerlcan Community Organization on Swan Street
in 1969. Through the years he has become the patriarch of the Hispanic community.

Now turning 62, Mr. Olivencia plans to retire soon and return
to "the island," where he has a home. But be will spend only the winters
there. He plans to to return here each summer and visit his three children.

Since 1942, when the Torres and Rivera families arrived in Buffalo from Puerto Rico.
the Hispanic population has swelled to about 22,000, mostly Puerto Rican. In the
past 16 years they have arrived by way of New York City, Chicago and Boston.

Those are not immigrants from a foreign country. Puerto Ricans are American citizens.
Visited by Columbus in 1493, the island was given up by Spain after the Spanish-.American
War and was granted commonwealth status by the United States in 1952.

Father Antonio Rodriguez of the Spanish Apostolate of Buffalo likes to quote the
woman who stood up at a Board of Education meeting during a heated discussion about
bilingualism and declared, "My language is not a foreign language -- I'm American
by birth."Without any requirements for passports, work visas or
immigration hearings, migrating from Puerto Rico to mainland America is as simple
as buying a ticket and boarding a plane or boat.

But It doesn't stop there. "The other groups came here to make money, Father
Rodriguez says. "We came because we are American citizens and free to
come and go. There is a continual coming and going.

"This is because we have very close families. The old stay in Puerto Rico because
of the long, cold winters here. A daughter and son work hard in Buffalo and send
money to Puerto Rico to build a home. They all feel they own a home there; they all
dream of going back."

In Buffalo Puerto Ricans work in factories, in businesses, in the schools and they
are now entering the professions. There are many Puerto Rican secretaries and receptionists
in City Hall, the priest notes.

From the Swan Street colony, they have spilled into the West Side, where the Puerto
Rican-Chicano Committee runs many programs and where the Hispanic Festival is held
each year.

"I see the community growing fast," Father Rodriguez says, "But discrimination
is a reality, in jobs and housing, Why do you think so many live on the Lower West
Side? Because the houses are deteriorating.

"But they are still dreaming. Hundreds of Puerto Ricans own their own houses.
That's the hope of every Puerto Rican family. Some have bought homes in Cheektowaga,
Tonawanda, Lackawanna, West Seneca. This is a sign we are progressing"

The Hispanic/Latino population of the Buffalo metropolitan
area according to the 1990 census was approximately 16,000 people (about 4.9% of
the total population). This population is concentrated in the Lower West Side, South
Buffalo and Lackawanna. The Lower West Side is regarded as the center of the Hispanic/Latino
Community. This is the area roughly delineated by Porter Avenue (north), Elmwood
Avenue (east), Virginia Street (south) and the Niagara River (west).

Initial large migrations of Mexicans, Puerto Ricans and other people of Spanish-speaking
origin to Western New York were supported by a fairly reliable job market both in
the rural areas (canneries, granaries, farms) and in the urban industrialized centers
(in the steel mills, railroads, ships and factories).

The first migration of Hispanics/Latinos into the Buffalo area were Spaniards. They
concentrated in Lackawanna and formed the Spanish-American Club in 1924. They also
formed Las Amigas Leales and Los Buenos Vecinos.

A significant Mexican community has existed in the local area since the 1900s. As
the population grew and organized itself, the community established a permanent club
known as the Centro Social Club Mexicano in Lackawanna in 1947. However, many left
the area for Chicago as the local job market declined after the closing of the mills.

Cubans started coming to Buffalo in the 1960s. Dominican and Central American immigrants
are more recent populations settling in the area.

The Puerto Rican community is the largest group of Hispanic/Latino origin in the
area. The growth of this community in Western New York has been steady since the
1930s.

Many individuals and established societies (such as the Borinquen Club and Unión
Puertorriqueña de Ayuda Mutua) contributed their time, knowledge, and resources
to help the newly arrived get acquainted with the American lifestyle and to assist
in finding affordable housing and other basic needs.

Early on, the general structure of the community was strongly informal. The many
leaders realized that the organizations needed to be formalized and legalized so
they would be recognized by mainstream society and be able to participate in the
general social and political process. This has become a goal of the community.